Don Wooten: Netanyahu will never agree to a diplomatic solution
Israel is at war with Hezbollah. It has yet to be formally declared, but action on the ground is going forward.
It began with an ingenious, if savage, act of sabotage; one that qualifies as an international crime. Over 2,800 electronic pagers were exploded simultaneously in Lebanon, where Hezbollah operates. A dozen deaths resulted, along with widespread injuries. Most of the people affected were members of the partisan group, but many civilians were victims as well. Even pagers on sale in store windows exploded.
The following day, numerous walkie-talkies exploded, adding more deaths and injuries. The following day, Israeli planes bombed suspected Hezbollah sites in Lebanon, increasing the number of civilian casualties. While all this was happening, a second group of Israeli soldiers was dispatched to the northern border, as if preparing for an invasion. With Hezbollah thus crippled and out of touch with leadership, this would seem to be an excellent time to invade Lebanon, yet again.
By the time this appears in print, there might be a full-scale war in progress, something the United States and Israel's European allies desperately want to avoid. But Israel's Prime Minister Benyamin "Bibi" Netanyahu has made it clear that he will sacrifice whatever it takes to remain in power: anything to avoid going to jail. (He is charged with corruption) Bibi took no action to prevent Hamas from building a war machine in Gaza; a carelessness that has made him almost universally unpopular.
How did it come to this? Why has this situation spun out of control? Picking through the whole range of reasons means looking back over a hundred years, finding fault at every step in time.
Israel's current actions in Lebanon were motivated by Hezbollah's increasing rocket attacks on Northern Israel, forcing the evacuation of several towns and settlements. Hezbollah ramped up its attacks because of Israel's bloody invasion of Gaza, killing hundreds of civilians in an unfocused attempt to rescue hostages and eliminate Gaza's Hamas leaders. That assault was provoked by Hamas' brutal attack on Oct. 7, 2023, involving wanton rape and murder and the taking of numerous hostages.
Hamas had two motives for the ghastly raid. One was Israel's tolerance of West Bank settlers terrorizing its Palestinians inhabitants over the past 50 years, despite the ruling of Israel's Supreme Court that the settlements were illegal; also, the army's tolerance of murder, arson and razing of Palestinian villages by the settlers. Even when the courts sided with Palestinians, the government refused to act.
The other was Israel's campaign to establish commercial and political relationships with Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries, actions which would have the effect of undercutting any future effort to help Palestinians establish their own country.
Prior to the current military action, Israel has been engaged in numerous wars, incursions, intifadas with Hamas, the Palestine Liberation Organization and Lebanon. Among the most significant was the Yom Kippur War of 1973; the Six-Day War of 1956, during which Israel acquired the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, and Sinai; and the 1948 War of Independence, which established Israel as a nation.
In the midst of all these conflicts, there have been attempts to find a pathway to peace. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter engineered the Camp David Accords, a peace agreement between Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, a treaty that has remained in force.
A pivotal one occurred in 1993, when Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Mahmoud Abbas representing the Palestine Liberation Organization, signed a Declaration of Principles, known as the "Oslo Accord." The agreement was engineered by Norwegian sociologist Terje Larsen of Norway and Beilin of Israel's Labor Party. President Bill Clinton hosted the signing at the White House.
It is worth noting that, during this period of a possible peaceful resolution, the two sides seemed to enjoy a mutual coexistence. But the Orthodox faction in Israel was violently opposed, citing the ancient myth that God had promised the land to the Jews. The ensuing assassination of Rabin, during a 1995 peace rally promoting the Accord, marked the end of any realistic hope for the proposed two-state solution.
One of the most persistent opponents of the Accord was Netanyahu, who pretended be working out an agreement with the Palestinians but kept delaying and objecting before finally admitting his total opposition. Bibi managed to stay in power by making alliances with various political parties in the Knesset, gradually estranging allies until he wound up locked in with the legislature's most conservative orthodox factions. His only hope of survival is to defeat Hamas and Hezbollah, whatever the cost. He will never agree to a diplomatic solution. His intransigence could easily trigger a wider war with Iran, a conflict that could pull the United States and other nations into to a major conflagration.
Again, how did we come to this? Why have all parties found it so hard to compromise?
Some find the fault in human nature. Men have a disposition to compete. Masculinity asserts itself in a desire to win, better yet, to dominate, whether in business, play, conversation, or war.
Another factor seems to be religion, those who presume to speak for God assume that their judgments supersede those of secular rulers. And those "defending" their faith feel justified in doing whatever it takes to triumph over "heretics." Witness the bloody history of religious wars. The sacred city of Jerusalem is a prime example. It has changed hands through the centuries, with its inhabitants slaughtered over time by Christians, Jews and Muslims.
There is a final historical detail at the base of today's Israeli-Palestinian war. In 1917, England issued the Balfour Declaration supporting the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine, adding that "it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities."
How has that worked out?
Don Wooten is a former Illinois state senator and a regular columnist. Email him at: .
